What you do?

More Details (Installing Build 5384)

For best results, you will want to use Beta 2 or later.

Apple's firmware update to support Windows XP includes a bit of custom work which allows XP to boot and be aware of a GPT disk as if it was a normal MBR-based disk. This little hack of Apple's confuses Vista, so there is one custom step that you have to do when installing Vista.

1. Boot Windows Vista Beta 2 (5384 downloaded from Microsoft web page) from DVD after using Boot Camp to partition your drive. You do not need XP SP 2 installed before installing Vista.
2. When you have booted off the Vista DVD, you will want to delete the 200MB partition that is on your internal drive before continuing. This partition can be restored later so don't worry too much.
3. Continue the Vista install as normal, making sure you select the partition you intend to install Windows onto, and not your OS X partition. You might want to select different partition sizes to make it easier when you partition using the Boot Camp assistant.

With Beta 2 (the official release - build 5384), the rest of the problems installing (from previous builds) are gone. The winload.exe error no longer appears, meaning you can actually do a full install, and boot into Vista without having to repair the startup data or anything funny like that.

This works the same way XP does, so booting through Option/Alt and Startup Disk works as before.

What Does Work, And is in the Box

• Drivers - Most of the bits in the MB/MBP work out of the box, and there are only ONE set of drivers you need from a 3rd party. If it doesn't work after getting drivers from Windows Update or installing the sound chipset, there are no drivers for it.

What Doesn't Work, But Are Very Useful

• InputRemapper - The systray does not currently work correctly. It needs to be run as administrator. Not sure of a good way to make this work without problems.
• BootCamp Driver CD - Won't install the drivers because the X1600 drivers aren't needed. So the entire install rolls back, and you can't install the bits that you really could use, like Brightness.exe and AppleCDEject.exe
• iSight - This is recognized as a video camera by Windows, but doesn't seem to be able to use it.
• Bluetooth - Bluetooth in Vista is flat-out broken. There is no UI that I can uncover to access the built-in BT stack or configure devices. My BT devices work randomly, not at all, or only partly. BT mice scroll-wheels don't work right. This is a HUGE area of regression from XP, and disappointing on MS' part to say the least. (comment: this isn't Vista's fault. If you look at Vista installed on a PC, you'll see a Bluetooth option in Control Panel. The reason it isn't displaying is likely that the Bluetooth device doesn't have a driver, so the system doesn't bother displaying Bluetooth options. The actual control panel for Bluetooth is nearly identical to the one in XP.)

What Does Work, But Isn't In the Box

• Brightness.exe & AppleCDEject.exe - Both of these need to be setup to be run as administrator before they will work. The option is under: Right-Click on the EXE -> Properties -> Compatibility. There is also a registry hack needed to get them to start on boot, so this isn't for the faint of heart.
• Sound Drivers - These need to be installed. You can use the same drivers as you would for the XOM solution. The catch is that these don't have the right registry settings, so only the headphones work. The forums have a couple solutions on how to fix this.

Restoring the 200MB EFI Partition

You will want to do this if you want to use the BootCamp Assistant to remove your Vista partition, reclaiming that space for MacOS X. Or, if you want to upgrade to v1.1 to create a new drivers disk.

1. In Vista, open up Computer Management and format the 200MB empty drive that was once your EFI partition as FAT32 (You can also do this with the Vista Disc, in case your Vista install is corrupted).

2. Reboot off of the Mac OS X Disc

3. Switch to Console

4. Type in "diskutil list" and note which partition is your Macintosh HD. In my case it was /dev/disk0.

5. Type in "fdisk -e <partition>". However it is important to note that you will need to insert an 'r' before the disk device name. For example, in my case I typed "fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0".

6. Type "print". This should list the partitions of your Macintosh HD. You should see a FAT32 200MB partition, followed by an HFS+ partition and the partition you used for Vista. If this does not match up, stop here and retry fdisk with another disk or give up. Note the start and size of the partition and write them down.

7. CAUTION (fdisk is very dangerous): type "edit <#>" where number is the number of the 200MB partition used for the EFI. In my case I typed "edit 1".

8. CAUTION: You will be prompted for a System identifier (id) for that partition. Type in EE, which is not in the list provided by the help. Once again, I am retyping the last line to ensure there are no typos. Type in EE, which is not in the list provided by the help. Choose the default [n] for the next question about editing. Enter in the identical start and stop numbers you recorded in the previous step. In my case the start was 2048, although I don't recall the end.

9. CAUTION: You are done, but the changes have not been written. If you might have made a mistake, cancel now and exit and nothing will be lost. I would type "print" and ensure that the starts and stops match the previous print done before the edit. If you as sure you entered everything correctly, type "write" and fdisk will write the new partition table. Please do not proceed with this step if you are not sure about the procedure.

10. Reboot into hard drive Mac OS X.

11. Use Boot Camp to remove Windows partition.

Windows 2000 on the Mac

It is possible with a modified installation CD. Read the forum article "Windows 2000 Install: SUCCESS"[2] for detail.